Beneath the Dimming Sky
by The Drunken Wookiee
Summary: Anakin and Padme's surrealistic honeymoon on Naboo (contains no sexual content).
1. Default Chapter

**Beneath the Dimming Sky**

"Your love is the blood inside my veins," she said. 

He smiled, his teeth vaguely peering through his thin lips. Sweet sapphire eyes brighter than the clearest skies. 

"Your smile is everything to me," she said. 

"You tell me lies to please me, Padmé," he said softly, then cast his eyes to the passing clouds above. 

"I only speak my heart..." 

Stars raced, fleeting, to touch Naboo's lush horizon, billions of gallons of perfect, clear water crashed behind them, daytime gave way to night tide as she waited for his reply. Before her eyes, below the streaking stars, she watched the galaxy unfold. An empire rose, betraying her existence. Never would she be to see her children learn to speak. Friends died, love soured and turned to hate, which rent worlds asunder in clashing red thunder and brilliant blue lightning. Even the power of Yoda could not defeat the sadist madness of Palpatine. 

"I fear that your heart may change, and I will return to infancy, a slave to my love for you," Anakin said. 

"What would you do in my absence, sweet Ani, would you release your bottled anger for me? Would you kill to quench your pain?" 

He said, "I..." but his words failed him; he could not deny the darkness within. He could not lie to her. Finally he found his resolve and turned his stony eyes to her supple form, made evident by her loose flowered dress that clung to her curves in ways he often envied. "I would rather not have that question answered. I do not wish to lose you to find out how I would react." 

"I won't judge you," she said. "I can only ask that you choose what you know is right in every situation." 

"I know what's right," he said, and tossed his gaze to the grass, plucked small green glades absently. She saw the little boy from Watto's shop beside her, his childlike defiance a darkside glimmer she would never detect. The most powerful Jedi was a frail young man who could barely control his emotions, and she could read all the signs that pointed to his propensity for tragedy. 

She knew she was the momentary anchor that held his emotions together. She feared the moment that the tie would break. The emotional explosion from the biggest time bomb in the galaxy would affect everyone in the empire. She then knew how much weight her love for the chosen one carried. Everything was at stake.

"When you go to sleep on this night only I will be with you, my love," he said quietly, "and when you awaken in the morning mine will be the first face you see." 

"I would like that, if only for one night, but this night I will not sleep, for tomorrow you will be gone, and lightyears between our hearts." She refused the tears that filled her eyes, stiffened her face to refrain the swell of mourning cries.

"You know I would gladly give it up to be with you, Padme, if only for one lifetime..." 

His words chilled her bones; so honestly he professed that he would forsake his duty to the peoples of the galaxy for her love. "You cannot refuse your destiny, Anakin," she said. "You will return to your duties, and I to mine." 

"I will not have rest without you." 

"Oh, Ani..." she said, her voice aflutter. She rested her head on his shoulder and listened to the breeze and the rushing falls. 

He clicked his metal fingers together absently and stared at clouds, finding shapes in them. To his amusement a lanky gungan-shaped cloud wobbled into view, then tripped and tumbled ever-slowly into a crumpling Jedi robe. He reminisced about future betrayals, fights, and losses of innocence. He remembered the darkness yet unlived between this and his dying day, his pain, echoed and magnified a thousand times, sent ripples through star systems, destroyed lifestyles, freedoms, planets, and laughter in its wake, but he could never dream of a redemption for himself. He could only hope that his death would come quickly enough to spare his love the torment of his existence.


	2. 2

They embraced beneath the starlight, silent dreaming wanderers of space and thought still somewhat in love with the universe.  The drifted through star systems, played with asteroids, chased comets.  Anakin drew his saber and batted one cosmic fireball into a lush green planet.  The world cracked, shattered to pieces drifting all directions in perfect orbit around the planet's moons, which began to wobble haphazardly, double wrecking balls wreaking carnage on the other planets in the system.

Anakin grabbed Padmé's hand and pulled her running along the chasm between the celestial bodies, both laughing maniacally, heads craned back with madness.

He reached one slightly trembling hand to her soft cheek, pushed a dangling strand of hair back behind her ear, tenderly caressing her eyes with his.  She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, pushing him down into the tickling tall grass, hair flapping gently in the gentle breeze.

A faint flowery aroma washed across his path, reminding him of sweet honeymoon delight.  He turned his death mask upon the young woman in loose white cloth as she brushed casually past him.  Two men in gray suits grabbed her harshly, one iron gloved grip on each arm, led her down the desolate steel corridors to her awaiting prison cell.  

Padme… 

She withdrew her face from his, sat up in the grass looking sadly upon him.  "What's wrong?" she asked.

"She will be terminated immediately," said the skeletal old man.

Anakin looked down at him distastefully, his expression hidden behind black eyes, the universe distorted, miscolored through red lenses, contraptual diaphragm wheezing habitually.  His mind raced for reasons to keep the young princess alive.  "She may be of some use to us yet," he said, simply, unwilling to reveal his true intentions.

"Will we spend the rest of eternity staring at the sky?" Padmé asked, watching the clouds drift casually across the sky inside his bright blue irises.

"Would it be so unbearable?" he asked, shifting his head to stare again into her eyes, a faint smile of contention smirking his cheeks a bit.

"I could live the rest of my days with you, my love, but at this moment I would enjoy the company of my bed."

"You said…"  Anakin's eyes brightened as he comprehended her innuendo, rose and extended his hand to help his bride to her feet.

A small blonde boy stood frozen in the double Tatooine sun, blue eyes fixed to the flashing space battle glinting in the sky above.

"Come, Luke," Ben said, placing his hand on the boy's back.

Luke looked at the man, who grew instantly old, then disappeared, his robes falling softly to the ground, a man in black robes and painted face revealed standing behind the vanished master, stomping bewildered and angry upon the brown robes, his red saber blade pulsing photon energy where Kenobi's heart had previously been.

The small boy stretched out his hand and willed Kenobi's saber to his open palm, switched it on while the red-faced Sith chuckled defiantly.  Luke glared grumpily at the man, making him laugh harder.  Finally the toddler Jedi lost his cool and punched the Sith directly between his legs.  Maul pushed the junior Jedi down, then sank to his knees and gasped for air.

Luke began to cry.

A ten-year-old brown-haired boy and a short (for a wookiee) wookiee ran up with plastic guns and bombarded the black-clad Sith with plastic pellets while a brown-skinned boy snuck up behind Maul and jumped onto his back, reaching around to choke him.

Maul shot up and spun around, trying to shake the purple and lavender clad kid from his neck.  The kid wookiee charged forth and clawed at Maul's leg.

The Sith howled in pain, and finally fed up with the young rebellion he shoved them all away with the force.  Luke's crying faded to a sniffle, and he stood confidently up, holding out a blue glowing blade taller than him.

His feet never left the ground, but the toddler Skywalker leapt up and became a full-grown man, a flurry of red and blue laser swords clashing between them.  Luke spun and cleaved the Sith in half at the waist, stepped forth and shoved his blade into Count Dooku's stomach, flipped over the falling corpse and stopped midair, blade clashed high above the grimacing mask of Darth Vader.  Perched on the air Luke deaged and shrank sixteen years.  Vader did nothing, the forced breathing sounds absent, just the rumbling force power shaking the surrounding world and tossing out spin-top tornadoes that quickly died in the bright desert suns.

Vader released his force-choke on time, allowing Luke to land elegantly to his feet.

"Vader baiter imitator!" little Luke taunted, shaking his fanny.  "He likes kissing Tusken Raiders!"

"Tuskens!  I hate them!"

Luke giggled and pointed at him.  "Yeah, right, Daddy!"

"Why you little!" Anakin tore off his mask and chucked it at Luke, who swung his saber too early.  Already at the end of his swing the plastic mask struck his shoulder and cracked on the cheek.  Luke burst into tears and ran Jedi-speed across the desert wastes, Anakin close behind.  They ran for miles, lightyears all the way to Naboo.  Anakin stopped in the Queen's council room and bowed respectfully.  Luke clung to Queen Amidala's leg bawling.

"A child crying at the terrifying magnitude of his father's wrath can mean only one thing," said old Sio Bibble, then turned an accusing finger on Anakin.  "Bad parenting."

Anakin scowled and force-choked the ancient man, rattling the palace windows with his force rumbling.

Amidala picked up her jolting water glass as it began to splash on her papers.  "Anakin, stop it!"

Anakin released the old man from his force grip and turned an apologetic smirk to his beautiful wife.  "As you wish, m'lady."

She scooped Luke up into her arms and brushed her nails through his hair until he fell asleep.

"Daddy!" squealed gleeful little Leia, waking her twin brother.  She ran in her loose white pantsuit across the marble floor to embrace her father.  Anakin caught her as she leapt up at him, swung her around in the air, then brought her close to his armored chest.

"Padmé, why do you keep her hair in these ridiculous buns?" Anakin asked, laughing.  Luke laughed with him, pointing at Leia's braids.  She frowned at him.

"Don't make fun of your daughter, Ani," Amidala said.

Anakin sat up shirtless in the large soft bed of Amidala, watched her sleep silently while his eyes adjusted to the darkness, his destiny revealed in the night.  Insects chirped and chattered outside, birds fluttered, awakening as the first light of dawn began to paint the world with highlights of brightened color, and still Anakin watched his wife sadly, for the night had already escaped them, and soon he would be gone.  Gone into the madness of the future's uncertain flow.  

"Clouded, the future is, by the dark side," Yoda had said, but Anakin had begun to see it all clearly, the prophecy of his existence beginning to reveal its meaning to his mind.  He would bring balance to the force by killing all the Jedi, but the weight of his destiny would crush his fragile spirit, and his anger for himself would consume him.  Then he would become a Jedi knight like his son.


End file.
